Wednesday, September 14, 2005

Cheap Predator knockoff or not?

Pakistan recently announced that it destroyed an al-Qaida base. Tucked in there was this little pertinent snippet.

The commander in charge of the operation said sophisticated equipment had been seized, including a small, Chinese-made remote controlled drone, which he said had been used by the militants to spy on army movements and positions in the area... An officer from the Signal Corps said the drone, believed to be the first of its kind found in Pakistan, was equipped with a sophisticated, wide-angle camera.

The version of the article out of Pakistan further says:

“The terrorists used the RPV (remotely-piloted vehicle) to check the position of security forces and attack them,” the general said, adding that the drone was capable of carrying weapons. A military officer from the army’s Signal Corps said the vehicle had a sophisticated, wide-angle camera to take pictures of targets on the ground.

Offhand, that description of the drone sounds like a clone of the USAF RQ-1 Predator UAV, but it doesn't look like one. Picture below copied from the Pakistani source without permission for the purposes of analysis.

[picture of drone]

Instead, it appears to be a repurposed remote-controlled hobby aircraft. If it was indeed used by militants, they didn't even bother camouflaging it, leaving it a bright, obvious yellow.

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